Chapter 5: Feeding time

" First thing's first, we need to set up a base camp and get some food. I don't really care about getting that artifact just so that monster can enter my world and kill everything. But I still have to survive until I figure out a way out of here. '' Ethan said to Hiamel as they moved deeper into the forest.

In response to this, Hiamel chuckled as he drifted closer to Ethan. " You act as though you have a choice, as long as I am here you will do what I say, If I say jump you jump. If I say kill, you ask who and where... and do it!" Ethan felt a searing pain inside of his mind as Hiamel asserted his dominance over him.

There was a tree with a hole in the trunk that Hiamel pointed out about 300 ft up. '' That could work as a temporary base but you need to learn how to use that body Ethan.: Hiamel said as he focused both of his hands together and generated a large black mass of energy and launched it at Ethan! '' What!?" Ethan yelled as it hit him.

But instead of being blown to smithereens it seemed to be seeping into Ethan and empowering him. Just then a screen popped up his vision with a surge of power.

The screen had fancy gold and red curtains and looked like a projector was playing an old style cartoon. Words popped up on the screen in animation. " Hello! Congratulations on being drafted into the army of the Cult of Tenebrosus! You are a giant spider (insert name here) and I will pass you over to drill sergeant Hiamel to teach you how to use your new monster body." Wha.. this keeps getting weirder and weirder."

The screen changed again and it showed a cartoon version of Hiamel with an army coat and helmet on. " Listen here ladies, I call you ladies as a motivational technique to undermine and demean you. I am going to teach you how to move in your new spider body.

Firstly you can climb up most any surface due to long hairs on each leg that can dig into most surfaces and carry you up them, once you try it a few times you will get the hang of it. This will be your bread and butter skill maggot! Now get to moving up that tree! Move move move! ". The drill sergeant said as the screen moved with a now hustling Ethan because while his conversations with Hiamel were normally silent and his mind.... This screen was not silent.

it in fact was drawing the attention of nearby creatures utterly forcing Ethan to book it up the tree. " Oh, this is much easier than I thought!" Ethan thought to himself Ethan made it into the hole in the tree in no time. " Whew! I am going to get you back for that one of these days!" Ethan yelled.

Hiamel pulled tight on Ethan's leash " Now you listen here you little shit, I have complete and utter control over you, if you piss off our lord and savior I will personally force you to tear yourself apart. Piece by piece. to drive this point Ethan was lifted up and was struggling to breath. Hiamel did this with a sneer in his eyes. " Now move on with the presentation," Hiamel said with a chuckle.

"I will get you back for this... one day" Ethan thought to himself as Hiamel dropped him in front of the screen and his head was forced forward to pay attention to the screen.

The screen displayed new text in that cartoon-ish style and a voice that sounded like a robotic female sounded off. " You have a new mission! Eat so that you do not die! Yay! Now, you have several tools to help you in this endeavor, one, the element of surprise. Spiders are generally ambush predators, they do not usually fare well in direct combat.

You will need to launch a sneak attack from a stealthy position and take your target with precision. Which brings us to the next tool in that murderous tool belt. Webbing!" The screen changed again.

This time it changed to show a cartoon-ish version of Ethan hanging upside down from a tree branch from webbing above an unsuspecting cartoon version of a human being.

" You can sling web in any direction that your back end is facing, once you upgrade and evolve. For right now, let's see how this works."

The cartoon spider on the screen quickly flipped and still held onto the strand of webbing as it dropped its caboose towards the human and fired.

The webbing started wrapping the human and if you paid attention to the spider it was twitching its rear to change direction of the webbing, soon enough the human was completely wrapped up The cartoon spider dropped onto the human and suddenly reached down and ripped out the humans spine and his skull was still attached to it as the spider waved it around like a trophy.

" I don't have to do that last bit, do i? '' Ethan asked.

"Are you a predator? Then no. That was left over from that training class." the screen displayed with text. The screen moved on without giving Ethan a chance to ponder what that meant.

" Now finally, the last tool in your tool-belt for now is venom. " You have a potent venom that restricts movement and paralyzes enemies so that you can deliver the final blow at your leisure, maybe even carry them back to your nest.''

The cartoon spider is seen sneaking up on a cartoon human and as soon as it was in range it lunged out and attacked the human with a deep bite and then scurried away and waited. Slowly the human stopped moving and dropped to the ground, soon after the spider came out and tapped the human with its leg and then poised triumphantly over the human and a little tune played.

"Dunn dunn dun dun dunn dunda duuu" then the spider scurried away with its meal and the screen began rolling up into itself as its voice rang out one more time.

" Now that you have seen what to do. Go put it into practice and grab some munchies to complete this tutorial." Ethan suddenly felt his stomach grumble and he rushed through the hole in the tree where he was staying and dropped onto a low hanging branch, from there he placed his rear facing cannon against the branch and started to try to release webbing.

It felt a bit like pooping but with more control and obviously a different ending. After a bit he seemed to get the idea behind it and slowly secreted the webbing onto the branch and slowly descended and waited while dangling upside down which was an odd feeling to say the least. " Now we play the waiting game" Ethan thought to himself as he dangled from the web.

Thankfully, Ethan didn't have to wait long and he spied a mouse making its way underneath him. It was a large mouse, but still a mouse the size of a German shepherd. Ethan descended. " Slowly, don't want to scare it away."

As he descended closer to the mouse silently he flipped around and pointed his rear facing nube tube at the mouse and fired directly hitting it in its face he then started rotating the gland making the webbing and slowly covered the entire mouse.

Then Ethan slowly brought up the mouse to him using the webbing, once the mouse reached him he could feel it struggling. " Sorry Jerry, it's you or me. '' Ethan then extended his mandibles and bit down hard, injecting poison into the mouse.

With that done, the mouse stopped moving in a short amount of time and Ethan carried it up to his impromptu home.

When the mouse was in his nest, Ethan kind of looked at it, but slowly his spider instincts took over and he lunged out with his mouth and injected a small tube like thing from his mouth and filled the mouse full of his venom that soon liquified the mouse's internal organs.

Then Ethan sucked everything back up until he was full. " Ah, mouse smoothie. Lookout jamba juice, I am going to start a franchise!"

Once Ethan was full a notification popped up, "Ding! Mission complete, you have completed the mission... Eat so that you do not die. You have unlocked the ability to upgrade and purchase new abilities with the mutogene that you have received from killing that poor poor baby mouse.... Yay you are a monster."

Ethan just shrugged it off, not much he could do in this situation. It was him or it, and he knew that. The only thing he could do was focus on his survival and not let the.. little things get to him.